Send us a Text Message.

This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Flavia Gray, creator of Ships and Champagne, A Luxury Cruise and Lifestyle Blog. I wrote about Flavia’s story in my first cruising book, The Joy of Cruising amzn.to/2EAMddF, in a section called The Influencers, which focuses on individuals like Flavia who epitomize what The Joy of Cruising is about: individuals moved by their passion for cruising who choose to manifest that passion in an engaging way when not sailing. Flavia hails from the UK; as you’ve likely heard me point out before fully a third of the passionate cruisers profiled in The Joy of Cruising were from UK, and that proportion has held up through the subsequent books, Cruising Interrupted amzn.to/3seFU8y and The Joy of Cruising Again amzn.to/3lAfyON, as well as The Joy of Cruising Podcast. I feel a connection with my new friends from UK—and I hope to meet a few of them when I finally cruise out of Southampton in 2025. What’s different about Flavia is unlike my other UK friends with whom I have interacted with via email, Zoom, or Skype, I have met Flavia in person twice in Florida on visits she made to see friends in the US. Flavia was also one of the first passionate cruisers—UK or elsewhere in the world to agree to be in The Joy of Cruising. I vividly remember writing her feature—with a great deal of assistance from Flavia—with a smile on my face as it was my first foray into kind of, sort of, travel writing.

Flavia’s feature in The Joy of Cruising, Ships and Champagne was at times quite poignant. A single mother of two saw her singing hobby turn into a full-time career, singing in bands performing at weddings, pubs and clubs. Though Flavia was quite good at her craft—it was not going to provide enough of a reliably constant income. This need led her to a position with Royal Caribbean as a Cruise Specialist—telephone sales.

Flavia progressed in her cruise career and went on to create an award-winning cruise blog, Ships and Champagne—named a top 50 cruise blogger and nominated for UK’s Wave Award in 2017 and 2018.

Flavia loves cruising and remains a cruiser at heart but has shifted away from the sea to the air. In 2022, she started a new travel career as a flight attendant. Flavia does however long to cruise again, and we ask her about her brief change of career and future cruise plans.

Text me!

Support the Show.

Support thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon

Send us a Text Message.

I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast Mikkel & Dan, creators of the Sometimes Sailing cruise website and Instagram. I got to know Mikkel and Dan when I wrote about Sometimes Sailing in my new release The Joy of Cruising Again http://amzn.to/3lAfyONwhere I wrote about their penchant for small ship cruising as well as “ship-within-a-ship” spaces, for instance, Celebrity Cruises The Retreat, Norwegian Haven, and Princess Cruises Medallion Class.

I hosted Sometimes Sailing on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Episode 28 last year and mentioned how Mikkel & Dan were instrumental in motivating me to pursue my bucket list aspiration to sail a river cruise. The river cruise we chose is the AmaWaterways Soulful Epicurean French River Cruise 2024 on AmaKristina. The river cruise is rapidly approaching—we embark in August—and, since Mikkel & Dan have sailed AmaKristina, I thought it fitting to welcome them back to share with the listeners what we can expect this summer.

Here are the links Sometimes Sailing mentioned:

• https://sometimessailing.com/why-are-river-cruises-so-expensive/
• https://sometimessailing.com/river-cruise-versus-ocean-cruise/
• https://sometimessailing.com/amakristina-cruise-review-amawaterways/
• https://sometimessailing.com/amawaterways-food-review-with-drinks-on-amakristina/
• https://sometimessailing.com/amawaterways-provence-excursions-during-a-rhone-river-cruise/
• https://sometimessailing.com/amawaterways-colors-of-provence-rhone-river-cruise-review/

This is also a great article for your first-time river cruising: https://sometimessailing.com/first-time-on-a-river-cruise/

Text me!

Support the Show.

Support thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon

Send us a Text Message.

I am delighted to welcome back to The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Matt, creator of Cruise Life Matt. I first “met” Matt on Instagram, mainly due to the prevalence of stunning cruise ship drone photos on his feed that caught my eye—leading me to dub him the best cruise ship drone photographer on the internet. Last summer it was my pleasure to host Matt on The Joy of Cruising Podcast Ep 32 Cruise Life Matt.

I follow Matt on social media and recently started seeing both some stunning Icon of the Seas drone photos from Matt as well as his mouthwatering food photos from Icon. As you know Icon is the new largest ship in the world which launched just a few months ago. I have had a number of passionate cruisers on the podcast to share reflections of Icon, and I thought it was timely to invite Matt back to provide his perspective—with a special emphasis on Icon’s food.

Text me!

Support the Show.

Support thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new
Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth
Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html
Book Cruises https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingPodcast-BookACruise
US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast)
The Joy of Cruising https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising
Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted
The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain

Intl Orders via Amazon